Harness-pad



(No Model.)

W. V. KAY.

HARNESS PAD. No. 249,771. Patented Nov. 22,1881.

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FFICE.

A'rnN'r WILLIAM v. KAY, or WAU'KEGAN, ILLINOIS.

HARNESS-PAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 249,771, dated November 22, 1881,

Application filed July 14, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM V. KAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waukegan, in the county of Lake and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Harness-Pads; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pad provided with my improvement; Fig. 2, acentral longitudinal section of the same; Fig. 3, a plan view of a detail; Fig. 4, a sectional view showingamodification, and Fig. 5 a detail view of the same.

My invention relates to the class of devices which permits harness-pads to adapt themselves to the backs of horses of varying conditions in the matter of flesh. I

Not only is the same harness often used for different horsesa.s for instance, in liverystables-but the same horse generally varies considerably in condition at different times of the year. It is therefore highly important that the pads should be given a capability of ready self-adjustment, in order to fit properly under all circumstances. Accordingly, in devices for this purpose the pad is jointed or hinged to the saddle-tree or pad-tree, as the case may be, in such a manner that it shall easily accommodate itself to the horse.

The object of my invention is to improve upon the mechanism for hinging the above parts together, and also to accomplish certain other results, as will appear from the subjoined description.

In the drawings, A is the pad, having the leather top '0; B, the pad-tree, provided near its lower end with a transverse slot u,- and O, the plate secured to the exterior surface of the pad, and provided at its upper end with a hook, 15, adapted to pass through the slot to in the pad-tree, as shown, and serve as a hinge.

To afford a convenient means for supporting the traces above the ground when the horse is detached from the vehicle or load, I prefer to attach to the plate (J, near its lower end, a hook, s. It is in order to permit the casting of this hook with the plate 0 that the latter is made with an opening through it, as shown in the drawings. Hence, if it should be preferred, for any reason, to omit the hook s, the plate may be cast solid throughout.

Various means may be employed for securing the plate 0 to the pad; but the one which I prefer, alike for its simplicity and firmness and for the absence of unsightly attaching devices on the exterior of. the pad, is the plate D, secured to the inner surface of the leather top 0; and provided with anaperture, r, registering with a corresponding aperture, r, in the top c, to receive the hook, t, which is extended downward for a sufficient distance to pass through these parts, and then forward, parallel with the plate O, in order to permit it to hook under the plate D. The lat-teris provided with a recess, 9, to receive the end of the hook. In addition to the hook, the parts are held together by a screw passing through the plates 0 and D and the leather top, and I prefer to have this screw form part of the terret E, as. shown.

Fig. 4c shows no change in the general fea tures of the invention above described, but only suggests how the device may be furnished with an external leather facing for purposes of ornamentation. For this purpose both the pad-tree B and plate 0 are provided with a. marginal flange, 12,-projecting outward, thus forming a recess, into which the leather 0 is set. It will be noted that in this figure the hook s is omitted and theplate made solid, as more clearly represented in Fig. 5. There is no reason, however, why the hook should not be employed as well with the construction shown in Fig.4 as with that shown in the preceding figures.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a harness-pad, the combination, with the plate 0, of a plate, D, secured to the inner surface of the leather top 1 and provided with an opening, 1, near its upper end, hook t on the upper end of the plate 0, passingthrough the slot in the lowerend of the tree, thence through the apertures r and r in the leather top and plate D, and thence forward underneath said plate D, and a screw, extending through the plates 0 and D and the leather top at a point below the hook t, substantially as described.

WILLIAM V. KAY.

In presence of WM. H. DYRENFORTH, ADELBERT HAMILTON. 

